It was a tough decision to make. Three weeks ago we’ve announced the Smashing Magazine Logo Contest1 for the most creative, clean and fresh logo for our site. We’ve received over 190 Logos from 105 participants, living all around the world. We had a big choice and it wasn’t easy to select the winner. After all, the logo shouldn’t be just creative or gorgeous – it should fit to our web-site perfectly.

In our decision we’ve considered many aspects such as typographic clarity, used color schemes, ideas, simplicity and, of course, design. We’ve taken our time and selected the best works five days in a row. In the end it was a neck-and-neck race for 5 competitors.

We’d like to thank every participant of our contest. We really appreciate your creativity, your work and your time.

We’ll announce the winner tomorrow. Today, however, we’d like to present most original and interesting works we’ve received. Not every sketch is gorgeous, so not every design will be presented.

Thanks, guys. Your participation means a hell of a lot to us.

Selected Logos

I used some warm colors (orange and red), giving the logo an inviting look to it. I also saw that you used a pastel orange on your current log and dark red, so I combined the two colors. The “S” is explains itself, S – for Smashing. I love simplistic design and that’s why I used a plain rounded background behind the S just to round the design off.

2. Aloke Pillai (Canada)

I decided to create a logo with this kind of a style because it will attract the new generation as it has an edgy and youth appeal. It will also help keep the old viewers because of your tradition and excellence of providing resources for design. I decided to focus on the theme of download because i noticed that your website provides the viewers with mostly resources that can enhance thier experiences and the quality of thier design work. The major part to focus on the logo is the i. The dot of the i is a part of an exclamation mark. This symbol can be perceived as an exclamation mark and an arrow which symbolizes download. The exclamation mark that stands out in blue symbolizes the strength and trust that the website has.

3. Hugo Beltran (Mexico)

It’s kind of a stylized explosion, which for me describes the SMASH! of Smashing magazine. It’s also a book / magazine wide open. (for magazine, of course). It’s a hand trying to grab as much information as possible. The five fingers embracing the info you gave to us. And finally, I make it look like an ajax loader… not that everything in SM is AJAX, but I just took a theme that I?m interested about.

Concept is merging (smashing) information together to create something special/hot. Overall the design seems like a floating page that has a 3d illusion, but also the way that I colored the design for the eye to follow, makes an “S”. You could pull other concepts from the design like it was a vice, etc, but the design is abstract/simple enough to let the imagination wander about what it represents.

There is a green one fresh and a corporate style with sweet rates and a tiny oval shapes. The second one is the orange,
more oval and fancy style with different letter positions. The last one is more clean and has a corporate style with red background and a shiney label.

The blue logo should represent the modern and simple aspects of smashing magazine. The use of simple typography element “{“, 2 colors and a symmetrical composition create balance, while the use of a Myriad pro bold condensed give to the logo a strong optical weight.

The logo that I created it’s represented by two ‘s’ characters colored in two gray variants, and an orange dot that stands in the middle, over them. Well the ‘s’ characters are actually 2 different roads and the dot is where the Smash is. Smash is Smashing Magazine, the 2 roads are 2.0 and the dot is the WEB, so in a translation it’s nothing than the Smashing Magazine in Web 2.0.

18. Jeremy (?)

I kept it clean, simple, and in keeping with your current design. The accompanying logo and favicon were designed to be inviting, simple, and in keeping with the current “web 2.0″ design craze – which I feel your site welcomes. Why a bar code? What magazine DOESN’T have one?

I just did this for a couple of minute, 20 or so.. I don’t have enough time to make another studies.. maybe you could extend the deadline guys Because I’m the number one smashingmagazine fan in the third world.. I appreciate what you guys are doing. keep it up. thanks.

The basic concept behind my proposals is the information contributed by more than one people. Usually, you and your “audience”. That’s why i used the classic “i” information-symbol altered in many ways in order to give the feeling that more than one man contributes to the process of delivering information.

26. Marcos Guiponi (Uruguay, South America)

1.The logotype and the favicon were designed based on the action of the smash: You say that your readers are smashed with great info. It is represented by an ‘S!’. It also wants to express a highlighted or important space on the web (your web site).

2. The logotype and the favicon are based on a tools box with an orange element inside, which represents the needed (and found) web design tool or info that you provide.

27. Giovanni Dema (Italy)

Unusual Designs

I have made three designs hardly for smashing logo contest and i use some simple colour simple symbol hope it “KISS” (Keep it simple,stupid). and why i use theme “YOUR SMASHING LIFE”, because this is very simple words and get that your mean website theme before. “we smash you with the information, which will make your life easier. really.” so I make shortly: “Your Smashing Life”

Favicons

We also got a bunch of nice Favicons. You can find some of them in this screenshot. All images are scaled up to 32*32.

The Smashing team loves high-quality content and cares about the little details. Through our online articles, Smashing Books, eBooks as well as Smashing Conferences, we are committed to stimulating creativity and strengthening the web design community’s creative forces.

Christian Watson

Quentin Proust

I definitely prefere the first one. He choses to respect your graphical charter (at least your favicon’s color). And for the 2 logo he proposes, I like the first.
I also like the number 16 but it make me think of newspaper, not to a blog.
The last one I like is the 21. He correspond to the idea I have of your blog and have a favicon (that’s a plus).

Shaji

gillico

Great example of why logo contests suck. They shortchange the contest holders, who get a logo that has no direct relation to their product, because there was no conversation/exchange/dialog between the client and designer. They shortchange the designer who gets no direction from the client other than “make us a logo,” but is then expected submitted (allegedly) original, yet appropriate, work for free, despite the fact that they put are expected to put serious time into it.

Even worse, there is nothing original in this grouping- every single logo in this list engendered the exact same feeling of “I’ve seen this somewhere before.” If you’re happy with derivative work by amateurs that has nothing to do with your product, by all means, keep having contests… but you get what you pay for, and you ain’t got nothin’ here.

Carlos Magaña

WKILIS

Raj

Wow! So much of creativity and look how many designs you now have. That one there! #18 looks very nice and fresh. Other good ones are #4, #13, #17 and #20 but then all the designs are pretty cool and impressive. Must mention that #28 is much different than others and worth appreciation, good thinking on that one!

pm

Dan Loffler

25a, only because it subtly illustrates the partnership between Vitali and Sven. It has MEANING unique to Smashing Magazine. There are many strong designs but 25 gets my vote for creativity, originality and communication.

rietz

I dunno about these. Take your Web 2.0 tutorial, add your logotype of “Smashing Magazine”, and you have a hackneyed rehash of 99% of the trendy logos out there right now. I’m pretty unimpressed, to be honest. I don’t say that as a discredit to the idea of a contest, as was aforementioned by another poster. I merely mean to state that pretty much all of these designs are boring, uninspiring, and cliché. If I wanted a Web 2.0 logo for my site or company, I’d teach my little sister to use Illustrator, direct her towards your Web 2.0 badge tutorial, and she’d blow most of these out of the water.

The only decent ones, in my book, are 11, 29, and 30 (you better believe that it’s very hard to put 30 on my list with that nasty type treatment).

Jip

J

Yeah, frankly, I’m getting really tired of web 2.0. It’s just another “movement” that’s not going to last very long (hopefully). At least there’s a name for it though. Now I can feel relieved that I have answers to those art history dilemmas. The recent time line goes like this: Modern, Post-Modern, Web and Web 2.0. Phew, I feel better.

ty

#30 not preferable, the designer describes that he want to Keep It Simple, Stupid…and it look stupid really but not simple enough, the color makes the logo look busy, it’s to heavy for simple logo, the blue is ok

Rip

Nypo:creative

Personally I think number 13 is really nice – not particularly for this site but it has a nice typographical feel to it. Think there are some nice elements here that, with a little work, could make some really nice logos. I think the winning logo could do with a little tweaking with the spacing between letters. Think ‘Smashing’ looks a little squashed while ‘Magazine’ looks a little too spaced out. Great work though guys

mig

jeprie

Andres

Wow I didn’t know the Smashing logo came from a design contest, no wonder it is kinda crappy…

Kinda sad that a magazine that targets the designer devalue their industry having this unethical practices. I was thinking about buying one of the smashing magazine books, but I may as well just download a pirate version. This people don’t deserve my money.

6

102

chad

James Southorn

Crikey, most of these are so “web 2.0″ and just…awful? No disrespect to the “designers” that created them, but I guess this is what happens with no spec, no communication and no proper understanding of what a logo should be. Type some font, add bevel here and a gradient there and voila.

I’d stick with your current logo and it at least has some recognition and is actually pretty strong.

Jordan Zed

Hmm, I had no idea the new(ish) logo came from a contest. While I generally agree with the sentiment of the previous posters, I wouldn’t say that this falls under the usual bracket of spec work. No money was offered, just a small prize. While the winning logo was actually put to use, it was never a serious call for a freelance job. It seems more like that contest in the 90’s where kids could send in their drawings for the new Apple Jacks box: a good way to communicate with the readers, and have a bit of fun in the process.

Adam

How is a logo contest unethical? Was anyone forced or coerced into entering the contest? If you don’t want to participate, don’t participate. I see a bunch of whining “artists” in these comments. If all of you are so good, you will have no problem from competition of those that lack true talent and you have nothing to worry about because your work clearly demands prices exceeding the average artist.

Clearly you have no ethics if you think that because you disagree with someone, you then have the right to break the law as retribution as if you are the arbiter of what you perceive to be justice.

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